The biggest reality TV show in Canadian history wrapped up Monday night - Survivor Ottawa: the federal election.
Like every good reality show, it had people buzzing around the water cooler, dissecting who said what the night before.
Like reality TV, it was full of shocking twists culminating in an out-of-this-world, unpredictable finale.
Also like so many reality shows, what we saw bore little relation to what was really going on. All that jumpy editing led you to think things were going one way when in reality the opposite was happening.
The difference is, unlike Survivor or Canadian Idol, we'll be living with the results for long after the show is over - or will we? With a minority government, the sequel could literally be next season.
The drama ran right down to our own riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, where John Reynolds won his third mandate with his third political party by the skin of his teeth - and after being declared defeated on national TV.
The way in which Reynolds won - or nearly lost - is just as surprising. We expected Liberal Blair Wilson to sweep the Sea to Sky corridor and for the NDP and Greens to perform their strongest in Powell River and on the Sunshine Coast, with Reynolds carrying the riding on the strength of West Vancouver.
That held true - except that Wilson somehow found the key to Fortress West Van along the way. Instead of another romp, Reynolds found himself in the fight of his political life and only won by doing better than Wilson on the Sunshine Coast - the only area in the riding where he came in first - and Powell River, where he still came second to the NDP.
In both Squamish and Whistler, Reynolds dropped all the way to third, behind NDP candidate Nicholas Simons here and behind Green candidate Andrea Goldsmith in Whistler.
The local results are a testament to Liberal Blair Wilson's tireless campaigning in Squamish and Whistler - and also, we suspect, indicative of backlash to Reynolds' lower local profile.
Reynolds' initial reaction to federal softwood relief funds going to the proposed Sea to Sky Adventure Centre may even have played a factor in the Squamish vote. The same people that swept Squamish New Directions into power 18 months ago likely did not forget Reynolds initially taking the side of the displaced truckers and earning the appearance of opposing the Adventure Centre.
Just as Paul Martin's Liberals have been given both a second chance and a stern warning in their election results, so has Reynolds.
We look forward to his learning from the message.
